Woman kidnapped, tried to sell baby for Rs 5,000

A three-and-a-half month old boy was kidnapped by Sheetal Chauhan from a migrant last Monday and sold off to Kamathipura resident Reena Bheeda; police are investigating the possibility of a child-trafficking racket

GRP officers at CST arrested two women yesterday on charges of trafficking a three-and-a-half-month old male infant.

The infant was allegedly kidnapped by Sheetal Chauhan (25) and sold to Reena Bheeda (38), for a paltry sum of Rs 5,000. Both the arrested accused are residents of Kamathipura, Nagpada.

A railway cop holds the infant that was stolen from CST last Monday

The infant was stolen from Sushila, a Jhansi resident, who had arrived in the city last Monday morning, in search of an employment opportunity.

When we asked her, she told us that she hailed from Jhansi. Her husband had died two months back, and she had come to Mumbai in search of a job," said Ashok Kumar Jadhav, senior inspector of police, CST GRP.

"When Sushila alighted the train at CST, she met Chauhan, who promised her a job. Soon however, she whisked away the infant and disappeared.

Sushila started wandering about the station premises, scanning every corner for the abductor and her child. We spotted her at this point.

When she told us what had happened, we immediately accessed the CCTV footage of the station, and corroborated Sushila's allegation."

Receiving a tip-off about Chauhan's Kamathipura residence, cops tracked her down and nabbed her last morning. "We learnt that Chauhan had sold the infant to Bheeda for the paltry sum of Rs 5,000.

We then arrested Bheeda as well. We are trying to ascertain the motive behind Bheeda's purchase, as she already has three children," said Jadhav.

Cops are interrogating Bheeda, who insists that she bought the infant because she loves children. It is suspected that Bheeda is involved in a child-trafficking racket.